One morning as I was dropping my highly evolved and intelligent 5th grader off at school (for which I might add I had developed an new respect and admiration for as a result of his intelligence quotient) he presented a logical and well thought out argument. As we pulled up to the curb and I readied to tell him to have a great day and I loved him, he sat in the passenger seat and showed no signs of moving to exit the vehicle. I said the standard farewell anyway and waited for him to depart and still he sat. As my patience wavered I prodded him into action and he simply looked at me and said why?
"What do you mean why? Because your 10 years old and you need to go to school and I have to get to work"
"Why?"
"Why What? Why do you have to go to school or why do I have to go to work?"
"Why do I have to go to school? I'm in 5th grade and apparently I'm not going to retain anything I learn in the fifth grade anyway, so why do I have to go?"
This was perfectly logical and socially demonstrated argument and I had to respect and admire his thought process, but I simply put an end to the argument by playing my trump card.
"I don;t care if you don;t remember what you learn, you will learn it none the less and you'll get 'A's while doing it. I have to go to work and you need to get out of the car and go to class. End of discussion"
"Well, it still doesn't make any sense and seems like a big waste of my time".
"I'm sure you have a good point, now get out go to class and have a great day. I love you"So here is the question now, Are you smarter than a fifth grader? Do you remember your geography lessons, the metric system, how to diagram sentences in English down to the preposition phrases? Can you do long division and add/subtract/multiply/ and divide fractions? Can you recall dates of events in American History and tell me the Presidents names in the order that they served our country?
I can do some of this, but truth be known, there is a great deal I would have to rely on Google for. I would have to admit, that I am NOT smarter than a 5th grader, but I Do have a great deal more life experience and knowledge, and they will have to wait until they are all grown up to learn everything I know.
Are you smarter than a 5th grader?
Nope, I would make a fool of myself on that show. However, I can still recite the states in alpha order as long as I sing it, the way I learned it in 5th grade. I think you can say the same for 10th grade or college even. Those kids are learning that material in school at the same time they are making the adults look ridiculous. If I am in chemistry class, I would hope I that I would be smarter about it than a person who learned it 20 years ago, its fresh in my mind. All kids have to do is learn. As we grow older, we have more responsibilities and we have more to remember. The more we have to remember, like soccer practice, meetings, and when to take our pills, we push aside things weve learned, like chemistry, because its no longer relevant in our day to day activities.
ReplyDeleteHahaha. Well said and perfectly summed up Ember.
DeleteI am not. And, as pointed out by my 3rd grader while helping her with her math, I am not smarter than a 3rd grader either! : ) "Find a five-digit number. Each digit increases by one. If you add all 5 numbers, the answer is 20". It took me looking at her answer, and asking, "Are you sure?" to get it! lol
ReplyDeleteLol. Love this. Blame it on a long day at work and too much on your mind. Btw. Was the answer 2,3,4,5,6?
DeleteI hated that show. I watched it for a few weeks and thought, I'm so stupid. And why do I need to know all those dates in history? I've never had to know one for any reason since high school.
ReplyDeleteI think that happened to most of the viewers thus the consequent cancellation. Hahaha
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